MAR 17 2019 | Accelerate S1E2 | Being A Disciple

Sea Change Church · Accelerate · "Being A Disciple" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · March 17, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Today's scripture, Luke 5, verses 1 through 11. One day as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out in the deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken. And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people. So they pulled up their boats up onto the shore and left everything and followed him. The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Thanks, Jack. You're good at that, man. You drew me in there. You should go work for Audible. And then I was like, Yeah, what? Then what? We are coming up on another anniversary. I said that one of the largest sociological moments that we had in the last 15 years was when Facebook decided to put a like on their algorithm. And we could immediately put our self-worth into a spreadsheet. Before, you kind of just had to guess if people liked you or not.

But now you can actually know if they liked you. You could look it up and you could compare yourself to other people. And as part of that culture, before that, perhaps you remember the beginnings of the selfie. I think Paris Hilton is actually given credit for creating the selfie, which is interesting. I don't know if you remember that. And when that all started, and then it was like she was getting so much hate because all you ever do is take pictures of yourself.

But a historian would know that the selfie actually dates back to the beginning of all artwork. If you just go to the Louvre or you go somewhere, you're going to see just pictures. You just used to have to hire somebody to paint your selfie back like 500 years ago. And so selfies have been around for a huge amount of time. And it's interesting that the people these days that are considered the influencers, and I don't know if you've heard that term recently, but advertisers are looking for influencers.

You can get paid a lot of money by just putting pictures of yourself on the Internet. Isn't that amazing? Like that's a great job, just pictures of yourself on the Internet. These are the influences of our culture. And what I find really amazing is how little talent you actually need to be one of the biggest celebrities. I'm serious, you have to be savvy, you have to be careful. You have to do things like the humble brag.

You know what the humble brag is? So when we were all figuring out, we were hacking through the Internet with like a machete, you know, and trying to figure out how to do it. If you got to hang out with Michael Jordan, you would put a picture of yourself, hey, I'm hanging out with Michael Jordan today, check it out. And pretty soon people decided they didn't like that because you're bragging. And so you have to get very, and Christians, I think Christians are the ones that started this.

The Christians start the humble brag. So if you have a Christian who's hanging out with Michael Jordan, what you need to say is, so excited and humbled to spend time with this great legend of basketball. Can't believe I'm here. Hashtag blessed. Hashtag blessed. It's called the humble brag and be an influencer and the selfie. Now, it was interesting. Selfie culture was actually big back in my mom's generation. Do you remember we had a full life picture of our family that was in the house that was us?

And we had a picture of ourselves, a portrait, a family portrait painted that was six by four. I mean, it was a big piece of art. But I always wondered, even as a six-year-old, like, we live in the house. Like, so when you walked in, you got to see us, but then you got to meet us. It was like a little appetizer. Those were the days before, those were the old days, right? Yeah, town days. We're back up now. So praise God, mom's not doing that anymore.

My dad actually, if, he was born in aught nine. So my dad was, had me when he was 60, right? So that's old for a dad to have. And I remember he had a picture of himself and a lot of the men, I don't know if women did it as much. My dad had a picture of himself with a cigarette. I don't even think he was a smoker, but he had a cigarette. And he was sitting at his desk looking very serious. And he just had a picture of himself in his office sitting at his desk.

So, like, you walked in and he would be there at his desk. But then there was a picture of himself at the desk, which I think is great. You just really, really want to back it up. Like, I'm here. And if you don't know I'm here, there I am. So influencers. And what I want to talk about, I bring up all that culture. Because culture is fun, right? Culture is just a good time. We can just have a good time with culture now.

To realize that all of us have the ability to be an influencer. And you have an incredible ability to influence everybody you bump into. People will be affected by you and the way that you live your life. And the way that you choose to live your life. If you want to make the world a canvas that you paint the love of Christ upon. One of the best things you can do. My mom has said this for a long time and I heard it recently.

One of the best things you can do in regard to being an evangelistic presence for people in the world. Is just to know their name. To really know their name. I went to, like I said, I went to an event yesterday. And they talked about the importance of knowing your name. And they gave the thing from Cheers. Sometimes you want to go where everyone knows your name, right? And so we've really worked at that. And so Trader Joe's, I've mentioned that a lot.

It's one of my canvases. I love to try to be an influence there. And I usually like telling stories about how other people have had great moments with other people. But this was one for me that I was excited about. Because we've been working that canvas for a very long time. And we try to really have relationships with the seven places that I go to. And all of you go to about seven places, right? You go to the same dry cleaning, the same coffee house.

You go to the same store, whatever it is. And I walked in. And my man, Edward. I love Edward. If you see him up at UTC1 up at La Jolla Village. And I walk in. And it's busy. And I'm like, yo, EZE, what is up? He's all, hey, pass it. You know, give me a high five. Good to see you. And then I go back to the free food corner. And I leave my wife to shop as I just go eat the free food. And I'm back there. And Maurice is back there.

I'm like, Momo, what is up? Good to see you, man. He's all, you come to get some food today? I said, no, man. I just came for the people. I came to see you. And he's all, is your wife here? I said, yeah. And I said, she's over there. He goes, and this was so cool. He goes, and this is what we're going for. He goes, I love watching your guys' marriage. And he had told me about some things in his life. And let him tell his own story.

But he goes, I love watching you. Because you guys come. You serve each other. You hang out. You laugh together. And you're just hanging out. And I was like, that made me feel really good. You know what I'm saying? And it's actually true. The question is, is it, you know, I guess the challenge to you, the deep water challenge to you is, are you actively pursuing being an influencer in the seven places that you go? And how are you doing it?

Or are you the person that's regularly annoyed, that has a short fuse, that wants service? You want service more than you care about caring for people. Just because we go to a service industry place doesn't give us the right to treat people horribly. You know? It was funny. I was up at a, I went to a coffee house yesterday. And they have the new tipping thing on. They turn the screen. This is a little fun fact. They have a little tipping thing where they turn it around.

You can tip there. Now, the tipping thing, you know where it starts now? What percentage? Anybody know? 15. No, 15. And underneath it is a little word to give you a little heads up on where you are. It says 15. Nominal. I was like, nominal? And then it went all the way to like 35. You know what I mean? It was like, excellent, you know? And I said, I said, I felt like I was being insulted for giving 15%. I said, my man, it says, it says 15% here is nominal.

I said, I only give 10% to God, you know? But they want 15. I gave him 20. Then I gave him 20 after that comment. Look in your notes. Who is a disciple? Because this experience, this epic experience with Jesus, this net cleaning moment. Jesus comes to Peter in a net cleaning moment of his life. I love common glory. I love the commonality, the glory that can come in a common moment. He's cleaning his nets. He's frustrated.

He's frustrated. Nothing is going right. And Jesus shows up and invites him into the deep water and changes his life in a common moment. When I spoke to moms and when I wrote a couple books on parenting, I got, for every one dad I got invited to speak to, I got invited to speak to probably 20 women. I spoke to thousands of women. And women are kind of running family culture, it feels like, around the world, at least spiritual family culture, in my opinion.

I'd love to see dads step up more and more. I think that is kind of happening. But as I talked to them, a lot of them felt like they had given up their dreams in order to be at home. And I get that. And I would say, hey, I just want you to know. And really, I really want to focus in on the common glory and what can happen in the net cleaning moments of life. You know, like when your kid is just pulling on your leg and he's broken the applesauce at the store and you're tired and the whole thing.

How you can be changed in a moment. This is a discipleship moment where Jesus jumps in Peter's boat, which is kind of off-putting. You know, Jesus, I'm going to talk about it in a moment. He's a really tough guy to hang out with because he takes liberties with our lives. Now, he is the creator of the universe, so I guess he can do that. But he takes liberties with our lives and he goes and he gets into Peter's boat. And from that moment, multiple small decisions, Peter becomes a disciple that would change the world.

The question I want to say is being an influencer and using this word of influence, who is a disciple? And the question for you is, I mean, are you a disciple? Disciples follow Jesus. They don't get called to follow and stay in the Barca lounger. Now, Barca lounger for all the millennials in the room is an old school lazy boy. You know, it is like your mid-century. Let me just put it in millennial terms. It's a mid-century modern design.

Sorry. I love millennials. Don't hassle them to millennials. Who is a disciple? And I guess the question is, are you a disciple? Are you actually following Jesus? You can sit by the water, but Peter didn't sit by the water. He actually got up and actively followed Jesus. There's a difference between saying you're a follower of Jesus and actually following. The cool thing about when Jesus was there and called people to follow him, he actually expected them to follow him.

Like, he'd say, follow me. And then he'd walk away and he'd stop and say, no, no, I mean, like, follow me. Like, follow. And they would walk in the dust of the Messiah. A disciple is a person who responds. Circle the word respond. In faith and obedience. And I love that. We'll talk about obedience. Because obedience is, and faith and obedience are the bait for exponential catches, miraculous catches in your life. If you want to bait your life for the exponential results of God, bait it with faith and obedience.

Small little moments of acts of contrition against your own flesh desire to rule your life. A disciple is one who responds, responds in faith and obedience to the gracious call to follow Jesus. Now, before I read the rest of the sentence, go back to the gracious call. Because anytime God calls you, it is grace. I think it's funny that we look at it sometimes like, oh, I have an option. I can follow Jesus or not. I mean, the God of the universe.

It is grace that he even looks your way. Imagine the thing you're into. And find the person who is at the pinnacle of that thing. We're all into something. You're into golf. You're into, you know, whatever it is. Raising chickens like Bryce. I bring you up a lot, but you're one of my favorite people. I want to be a chicken farmer, dude. It's so cool. You can find the person at the pinnacle of the agricultural industry.

Or wherever you are in arts or surfing or whatever it is. And they come to you and they're like, hey, you've got what it takes. You're the next person. I'm going to call you into relationship with me. You would take that offer, right? Think of your thing. Whatever your thing is, you all have a thing. God's done that with you. He has come and he has given a gracious offer. He is the Forbes or he is the Getty or he is the whatever person you want to think of that comes and says to you, I'm asking you.

And you know what? All you have to do is follow me and I'm going to bring you into this lavish partnership. Jesus is doing that through a gracious call and he's asking you to follow him. And it is grace. Being a disciple is a lifelong process. It's not microwave. Of dying to self while allowing Jesus Christ to come alive within us. Let me say that again. Being a disciple is a lifelong process of dying to self while allowing Jesus Christ to come along, to come alive inside of us.

There is no keto discipleship. Okay? Where you can whip off 10 pounds in two weeks. It doesn't work that way with Jesus. He's not looking to you as a product that he can use as an influencer to sell his product. I think it's so interesting how quickly the companies will abandon the hottest celebrity in a moment when they make a mistake in the social world. You immediately, your celebrity is cast to the ground. You are just, you know, it's so interesting.

People, they're selling themselves as a commodity. It is so dehumanizing to watch it. But yet we laud it in society. We so want to be known. We so want to be liked. We so want to be cared for. And we get used by these. And what God is, is he's not looking to leverage your influence. He wants to use your influence for the glory of his father, of the father, to bring people into the kingdom because he loves them. But you're not a product to God.

And discipleship is not a product. But Jesus isn't looking at it and going, ah, gosh, another wasted week here from Mike or Dave or Joe. Another wasted week. Could have gotten a lot of discipleship to him. You really messed it up. You know what? Not using you for a while. I'm done. All it takes is one prayer of like, Jesus, I'm back. And Jesus is like, okay, I'll take you. Let's go. Let's do this thing. Let's go into the deep water.

And if you've failed God, he's not looking for you as a product. This is one of the few places where you will not be merchandised. And when the church begins to merchandise people, it really, really bothers me. When I see the church begin to use people, and especially in the pastoral system, that they use people who can help them get to a certain place. And they disregard relationships. And I see some heads shaking because you've seen it.

When you begin to dehumanize people because they become a product or a number. I heard about a mega church. And I have nothing. I love mega churches. Be as mega as you want. I don't care. But I heard about one that would begin to refer to people as the product. We have so many products. They begin to use marketing language. They begin to use business language. Jesus never does that. He's looking for relationship. He's looking for discipleship.

Now, this is the other thing that I think is so key in looking at discipleship. And I wrote this little sentence, and I smiled when I wrote it. It is a discipleship imperative that you not be the only person who knows that you are a disciple of Christ. This is an imperative to discipleship. Is it a discipleship imperative that you not be the only person who knows that you are a disciple of Christ? It's time to out yourselves, people.

I believe the world is looking for authentic Christians. Granted, there is a small group that would crucify Jesus again. Okay? And they're not looking. No matter how good you can present Christ, they're going to crucify you anyways. I believe that there is a group of people who are saying that most of the world doesn't want to hear from Christians. I have not found that to be the case. Some of the best conversations I've had have been in the last 10 years.

And I believe that, let me just use it off the top of my head. 80% of the world would love to meet an authentic Christian that makes a difference and that matters because they are incredibly intrigued by them. And I have found in my conversations that people want to have conversations. When I talk to my friends or people I meet, I tell them I'm a pastor or I go to church or whatever it is. They tend to want to ask me a question.

Now, granted, it's not really fair because I am a pastor. And they kind of feel like they're talking to the top of the food chain. So they will say, like, oh, let me ask you a couple questions, but they'll pull you aside. You might not get that. You might have to work a little bit harder. But let me just say there are so many amazing conversations. And just to find an art form of how to share with people and that they are not a product that you have to turn in a 30-second microwave cup of noodles, you know, to the next hot product.

That we are looking to make an influence and a change in people's lives. And how are you doing that? Which you'll see in the notes, and you've heard this before, but I love it. The key idea is this. You are the only Bible some people will ever read. Some people will never pick up the Bible. And I said this in the last service. Because Paul speaks here in Corinthians about you having the ability to be the Bible. And you having the ability to be the living word of God.

And let me just read this before I give that point. 2 Corinthians 3, 2-3. You, this is powerful. You have, I mean, this is so powerful. You yourselves are our letter of recommendation. Written on our hearts. To be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ. Delivered by us. Because they discipled them. That's how they were delivered. Delivered by us. Written not with ink. But with the spirit of the living God.

Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the human heart. And if you were to ask Paul, what was more influential? What could be more influential? The book of Romans? Romans? Or Ted? Who he discipled? Let's use Timothy instead. Tim. If he had to choose the book of Romans when he was writing it. Because Paul didn't know he was writing the Bible when he was writing the Bible, by the way. He was just writing a letter to Romans.

He would say Timothy. Because we are God's, we are the representation of the scripture. I know it sounds odd, but the Bible's not going to be in heaven. Jesus is the word of God. He is the logos. He is the word. There's going to be no reason for a human, you know, lingua franca of the day. Or any kind of language of the Bible. You know, when you put God's word into a Bible, into human language, you actually have to shrink it down.

You know, in order that we can understand it. People said, well, what do you mean the Bible won't be in heaven? Of course it will. Well, it's Satan's, the stories of Satan in the Bible, right? Yes. Is that going to be in heaven? No. The Bible won't be in heaven. You won't need it. Because the word will be in heaven. And that is Jesus. And this is why you are a more powerful version of the Bible. I'm not besmirching the Bible.

We need the Bible. It is God's word. It is holy word. It is unbelievable. We use it. We read it so we can have a rule of life. We live by it. But ultimately, you need to be the living epistle, the scripture says. Written not on tablets of stone, which he says, or words on paper. Which he is saying in this passage is less than the spirit of God writing on the tablet that is in your heart. That is spoken about in Romans.

That you are, that is written on you because you are eternal. And the pages of the Bible and some of the stories and the narratives of the Bible. And it's inadequate way to express the eternity of God. Because it is inadequate whenever you use human language. Because we can't express God, right? The Bible says that too. That you are more important. And you are the only Bible some people will ever read. Now my question is, how is your version?

How is your version? Maybe you remember in the 90s, the restaurants when, this happened three times to me. There was a church that was, man, they must have loved God a lot. And they would come to restaurants and in the middle of a meal, this happened to me three times. They, one of them would stand up on a table on the chair and begin to preach a gospel and not shut up for like five or ten minutes. Super loud. I don't know if anybody remembers that, but they were going around, it was in Mission Valley and it happened in Point Loma once.

And I took umbrage at the guy one time and took him outside. I'm like, man, this is just a really poor way. The Bible, the gospel has to be preached, you know. I got to say, the version you choose, God has a version of the Bible that is written by you. That you are you. That no one else, no one else can present the version of the Bible that you are. Excuse me, not the Bible. No one can present God's word, the word of God, like you.

Because you are unique. And you have to realize, you know, what do we have, like 50 translations of the Bible now, 150 whatever. You know, ad nauseum. But I wanted to say, more than that, every believer is a version of that Bible. And has the ability to pass that on, like Paul says, who is delivered. He says, we delivered you like a letter from Christ. Letter to Christ. Christ, you are the only version of the Bible some people will ever read.

And how careful are you with your life when you go out and share that version of the Bible? And are you an influencer where people say, I want to be like you? They see the way you treat your kids. And one of the best ways that you can relate to people, share the word of God with them, is just by the way you treat your kids in public. The way you treat your wife in public. The way, you know, by the way, you can't treat her in public.

The way you treat her in private is the way you're going to treat her in public. It's going to come out. Or vice versa. Women speaking to men. You're the only Bible some people will ever read. And so the question is, are you a disciple? And only you can answer that. Are you a disciple of Christ? And does anybody else know it? Discipleship has a following component. We spoke about that. Verse 11 shows us. It says, so they pulled their boats up on the shore and they left everything and followed him.

That doesn't mean you have to leave everything. It does mean you have to be willing to leave everything. Except your family. Except there's certain things, obviously, where we have vows that we want to stick to. But with every other thing, you can leave. Now, perhaps you remember the movie Heat with Val Kilmer, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and someone else. And that I can't remember. But there was this moment where Pacino comes up to Val Kilmer.

And he says, hey man, at any moment when the heat's on, you've got to be willing to drop everything. Spoiler alert, here it comes. The end of the movie, he's got this gal he's in love with. The cops are coming. And he's got to leave. And she looks out the window and she knows. And he's ready to bounce. I want to say, I want to have that same loose hold on everything in my life except the relationships that matter. My car, my house, everything.

Your title, your position. I mean, the higher you move up in your position, the harder it is to leave. Especially you get locked in sometimes in these things you feel like you can never leave. One of the most freeing things in my life is knowing. And I think my family knows this. That at any moment, I can walk from anything. I want to say, there is so much freedom. And especially in business deals. I've been in business deals where it's like, that's all going to get taken from you.

And I'm like, then it gets taken. And God, you know, because with an abundance mentality with God, if he wants to replace it, he will. You know, just to rest in that. I got to say, if you want to back off the stress, let things go. We see that they're willing to leave everything. It doesn't mean you have to. But are you willing to leave everything? And how tightly are you holding on to things? Three things and we'll be done.

First is this, discipleship truths. Discipleship's not comfortable. Discipleship. Jesus can be very off-putting and annoying once he gets into your life and gets you in the crosshairs. I found that. Discipleship leads to exponential living. Circle the word exponential. And third, discipleship exposes sin and offers freedom. We'll start with the first one. If you turn your notes over, discipleship is not comfortable. Jesus.

Jesus. I mean, I said in the first service, I don't know if any of you guys backpacked through Europe. That was a big thing for people to go backpacking in Europe. And I did it a couple times. And, you know, you take the Eurail pass. And, you know, you used to actually have to go to a thing called a travel agent. And you'd go talk to them. I don't know if you remember that. And you'd get a paper ticket and the whole thing.

You had American Express things. And you could lose them and not lose them nonetheless. And I traveled a lot of people. And I did pretty well. But one person I would really have a hard time traveling through Europe with would be Jesus. Because he's always doing really weird, annoying stuff. Like, you're with him and then he's gone. It's like, where do you go? We've got to catch the 4 o'clock. He doesn't care. If he misses the 4, he doesn't care, you know?

He's off in the mountains. He's praying with God. He's doing things that make me uncomfortable. He's taking mud out of the ground. Next thing I know, he's putting in some guy's eyes at the Trevi Steps in Rome, you know, or whatever I am. Trevi Fountain, excuse me. It's the Spanish Steps. There we go. I got it. Somebody would have emailed me after that. They don't email about anything theologically. But hey, you know, it's not the Trevi Steps.

It's the Spanish Steps, bro. Oscar Wilde, you can't figure it out? Look what Jesus does in... I went with Boogie, Chris, to Europe. That was a fun trip. He remembers that. Verse 3 and 4. Look what Jesus does. Peter has a boat. And Jesus goes and gets in it. Now, I don't remember anywhere in the Scripture where Peter asked Jesus to get into the boat. And there was two of them. And I think Jesus knew where he was going.

It says he got into one of the boats. The one belonging to Simon. Now, you had to understand that he knew whose boat he was getting into. And when Jesus gets into your boat, you're going to know it. And the other thing I think is interesting is sometimes we give... Something uncomfortable happens in our life. And it's like, oh, it's the devil. I hate when the devil gets involved. Sometimes it's Jesus. And he's just like, I just got to give you an elbow to the face right now.

I'm sorry. I'm just getting in your boat. Thank you. And not only is he... Now, imagine this. You go into the bank. You go to B of A or wherever you go to bank. And you walk out. And you've left your windows open. And you walk out. And there's this dude in the front seat. And, like, he's got his feet up on the dash. You know, he's reprogrammed your stations. Okay? Because you let the keys right. So, you know, there's no more kicksy.

You know, now he's like an alternative rock or whatever. And he's changed all the stations. And not only that, you're like, who's in my car? That's Jesus. Not only that, he's gathered a bunch of people around him. So, you can't really even get to the car to move it. This is exactly what's happening. That Jesus is like, I'm just going to get up in your stuff. Because it's grace. It might be annoying to you. But here I am.

And some of you are in situations right now. And you're blaming bad luck and the devil. And it's Jesus. And he's like, hey, I'm up in your stuff. Move your car. So, he says to him. He says to him. After he gets into his boat. Hey, can you put it out a little bit from shore? And if I'm Peter, I'm like, what, four feet? Wait, you want me to put it out six? You want me to move the boat six feet? What a stupid thing to ask.

It's like, I'm here. Okay, I'll push you out four feet from shore. Or what's the point? Sometimes Jesus asks us things just because he wants to try our obedience. And as we'll see in a moment, that obedience and faith are bait for exponential catches in your life. Try to string together a month of obedience. Try to string together a week of obedience and see what happens. So he gets into it. He pushes a little from shore.

And then Jesus sits down. And he begins to teach people from the boat. And then when he had finished speaking, he looked up at Simon. And he's just like, here's the crowd. And I just love how Jesus does this. It's like, crowd, crowd, crowd, crowd, crowd, dealing with the crowd. Simon. When Jesus looks at you and he calls you by name, you'll know it. And you can run. And many do. And he's free to let you run. I don't see a lot of times where people have left him.

And he goes, wait, no, please. My whole self-worth is built on you following me. No, he allows you to leave and come back when you're ready. Peter was ready. And maybe you are too. And so he says, pull out and go do something completely foolish. Because you're a professional fisherman. I'm just a rabbi. And you've been fishing all night. And you didn't catch anything. And it's been a horrible day of fishing. And nothing's working.

Could you please? And now it's the morning. And we don't catch fish. That's a bad time to fish. It's probably 10 o'clock in the morning by now. And it's a bad. Everything's not working. And he says, can you take me out? And you know what? Peter had no better options at that point. And so Peter said, yes. And the next thing they know, they're in the deep water. And some of you, Jesus is calling into deep water. Some of you, he's been calling into deep water for a very long time.

The thing is, faith doesn't always pencil out. And this doesn't mean go do something stupid. Because a lot of people do things without wisdom. And they do things that are foolish. Just because there's a sense of freedom in doing something foolish. Have you ever experienced that? I remember something in my past. I would just do something. Call it faith. Just because there's a relief. Like I'd go quit my job. Just because it's faith, you know.

And it feels so good to, you know, tell the boss, I'm out. You know. And it's God. I'm going to believe in God. And God's like, hey, I didn't tell you to do that. But it felt really good. You know. Until the last paycheck comes in. Jesus invades Peter's space. And maybe he's invading yours. And he's calling you to some deeper water. And some of you have been living in the shadows way too long. And God is saying, hey, there's something I want.

I want to get into some deep water. I want to free dive with you. I want to show you things you've never seen before. I want to show you things I can do and call you. And we have this thinking that is wrong. That whenever Jesus, we obey the Holy Spirit, it's always taking something from us. If I obey the Holy Spirit, he's telling me to stop doing this. Don't do this. Stop that. Sometimes obedience is a good thing. Hey, Adam, go over there and get that brand new Ferrari.

Because I want to give it to you. But you're going to have to walk over there and get it. Or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like, sometimes God, obedience is like obedience into something amazing. Because we use the word obedience, we always see it as a negative thing. But the Holy Spirit in God, he wants to take you into peace. He wants to take you into joy. It's the world and the devil that says every time you obey God, it's a big buzzkill.

And he's trying to ruin all your fun. God wants to walk you into something greater, which he does. He actually gives such a prosperity blessing to Peter here. That, I mean, the amount of money that they cashed in, the nets were ripping. Now, you have to figure that fishermen would have enough nets to make a good living. They would be able to catch enough fish to make a solid living. And if those were full, it would be a good day.

He calls him into this. He asks for a little effort. He asks for a little obedience. He asks for a little bit of faith. And then Peter goes out and gets wildly blessed. And sometimes obedience and faith are the bait that God wants to use to lead you into that next place. And I don't want to use prosperity because I think that word's been overly used with the church in negative ways. But to lead you into, let's use the word, exponential living.

Talk about that in a second. Jesus invites Peter in the deeper water. And the question is, are you tired of the shadows? Two more points and we're circling the tower here to land. Discipleship leads to exponential living. When they had done so. When they had done so. In a circle, done so. Are you going to done so? Meaning, if God asks you to do something, you've done it. Some of you, God's been asking for a very long time.

And you haven't done so. Done so is a big word. Try doing so and see what happens. See what happens with obedience in a long direction for a period of time. You will start seeing an exponential blessing that builds upon itself. Where you'll look around one day and think, how did I get here? And it's a good thing to say. You look around and say, you know, I just stopped drinking one day at a time. And now I am where I am.

When I had my heart attack and I was down at Kaiser and they're beating at 188 per minute, which is a pretty fast heartbeat. If you've had it for three and a half hours. Making the decision to leave that lifestyle has led me here. And I have to say it's exponential. Because I'd probably be dead. Exponential living. The bait for exponential living is obedience and faith. And I want to say, God just wants to take, you know, let's say you get your, I hate to use this analogy again, but it's easy.

Let's say you get a paycheck. And you just, at the end of it, you can just put as many zeros as you want. Like, if you understand exponents. And I'm learning sixth grade English again. Like, okay, not English, excuse me, math. My daughter is doing sixth grade math. And it's horrifying. And it's, I wasn't good at it then. I'm not good at it now. I figured out this thing with exponents. And exponents takes a little tiny thing.

And they put this little, little thing up. I feel like a six or a five. And then, bam! It means like, whoa! All of a sudden, it's like, that's how God works. It's the ability to exponentially change your entire existence. But don't expect it to be in a microwave. Rock it out for 25 years. Follow Christ for 30 years faithfully. Follow with your finances for 30 years faithfully. Follow with your tongue and the things that you speak faithfully.

Speak words of blessing over your family instead of words of cursing. Don't allow yourself to curse in your house anymore. Why would you curse your own house? Why do you use lying? Why would you, why would, if you know what a curse is, they call it cursing for a reason. Profanity means to profane something God has made. So when you take a person that God has made, and you call them something less than they are, and you can figure out your favorite word to call them, then you are profaning something that is holy because God has made it.

And that is why they consider it a curse. Why would you curse your own home? But yet some people can't, because it feels so good. And they constantly are cursing. Try to bless. Bless your wife. Bless your girlfriend. Bless your kids. What does that look like? Say, I refuse to curse my, you know when you curse, you know who gets cursed? You. Let me say it again. Words have the power, the scripture says, of what? Life and death.

When you curse, okay, and I didn't, we're not doing a thing on swearing today, but it's curses. When you curse, the person who is cursed is you. Because you are living in a world of death. Now back to this point, if you want exponential blessings, change your tongue. Change the way you speak. I don't remember, maybe in the first five years we were married, we used words in the house we wouldn't use. But I don't remember, I can't remember a time where there's been a word used like that.

Matter of fact, there's very few things I've said in the last five years that I regret saying to my wife. Because we don't have, I mean you say our marriage doesn't have the margin for it. Maybe yours does. But we got to a place where we no longer had the margin for me to have any slip-ups of the tongue. I don't know if you've had that place as well. My wife smiles. Discipleship leads to exponential living. Blessing corresponds to obedience.

And the final point is this. Discipleship, and I love this, exposes sin and offers freedom. And here's what I like. Now, recognizing your sin the way Peter recognizes it here is the coolest way to recognize your sin, as opposed to someone telling you you're a sinner. I think the church got this wrong for a very long time. You are a sinner, and you need to change your ways. What Jesus did was show him the glory of God.

And when he saw it, he was like, Whoa, I'm a mess. That's the way you want to recognize sin. And that's what brings gratitude into your life. Recently, I took one of the little things I had said in the sermon and did it. Because I want to practice what I preach. And it was just to begin to inquire and ask of God. And I said, God, give me more of a heart for people. I just want more of a heart for people. It's a great prayer.

And then I forgot about it. And like with inquiry, I've been inquiring of God lately. And I don't go look for the answer afterwards. That's the thing we do. We inquire of God. They're like, Oh, I hope I find an answer. I hope I find an answer. Which is kind of antithetical to faith. I just ask God. I say, Hey, God, what should I do here? And then I forget about it. Because if he's God, he'll answer me, right? I don't have to go seek his answer after that.

I sought it by asking him. And I've noticed answers just start showing up. He's just answering stuff left and right. We see this blessing that comes from seeking and asking of God to make this. And one of the things that happens here is Peter sees an expression of God's glory. And when he saw it, he realized how much he lacked. I want to say when you begin, and the thing I'd ask God, I said, I want to love people more.

And I saw something recently. And I was telling my daughter about it. And as I was telling her, all of a sudden I started crying about something that would not hit my radar two months ago. And I realized that the reason that hit my radar is because I asked God to help me love people more. That was it. When I did that, all of a sudden I started thinking, man, I am so into myself. I am so into my thing. I humble myself, God.

I want more of you. You are so good. Look what you're doing in the world. I love you so much. I want to humble myself. I want to be less so you can become more. All of a sudden, you start recognizing sin. But it's not because someone looked at you and said, you're a sinner. You're a mess. You are not matching up. It's because you see the glory of God because you've been following him. And when you start having discipleship, you're going to start recognizing sin in your life.

But it's going to be a really good thing. And it feels a lot different than feeling guilt. Because it had nothing to do with guilt. And I don't think that Peter was coming into the doorway to his repentance was from guilt. The doorway to his repentance was glory. There's a big difference between repenting because of guilt. Jesus died for guilt. So there's no guilt in the world. If you want guilt, you choose guilt. Guilt's a choice these days.

Because the Bible says that Jesus died for shame and guilt. The reason he confesses is because of glory. And if you want to follow Jesus, you're going to start seeing glory. And when you start seeing glory, you start realizing, man, you're so good, God. I want more of you. That's what we want. That's the kind of, you know, when it talks in the scripture, you know, we talked about sorrow. But it says, do you have godly sorrow?

That's the difference between the sorrow of the world. Or Jesus says, I give peace that is not like the peace the world gives. There's all these juxtapositions. But when it comes to sorrow, godly sorrow looks at the things. And you're sad, but you're also joyful. And there's a joy component. And it gives you freedom in your life. That is a result, an exponential result of following Jesus. I want to say, when you are living loosely with shame, you no longer let it cling to you anymore.

And you begin to repent because you're seeing God work in such powerful ways. And people's lives being changed. And you get to be a part of it because of the gracious call. All of a sudden, life gets a lot better. Depression gets left. Anxiety gets less. All that happens. And what does it come from? Being a disciple. So last week, we talked about making disciples. This week, we talked about being a disciple. And being the only Bible that some people ever read.

My question is, what is the version you're preaching? Chris, lead us in our final song. If you would stand, we're going to sing. And then I'm going to bless you as we go out and try to make a difference in this forlorn world.